Just behind Slapton’s thatched cottages lies Slapton Ley, the largest natural freshwater lake in south-west England, held back from the sea by a long shingle bar. It’s a national nature reserve, good for birds. The beach in front, Slapton Sands, was used to rehearse the D-Day landings in 1944 — an exercise that went badly wrong, remembered now by a recovered Sherman tank at nearby Torcross.
